Why Are We Going Back To The Moon & Why Is It So Hard?
India is set to become the first country to land on the dark side of the moon
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Good morning,
Before we get to outer space, here on Earth, many of us are dreaming of retirement.
But Florida — sorry, Del Boca Vista— may no longer be your best bet.
According to Bankrate’s latest calculations— Iowa is the best state to retire in because of its lower cost of living, affordable but high-quality healthcare and low crime. Florida dropped from first to eighth place this year because home prices have gotten so expensive.
Des Moines, we’re coming for you!
Mosheh, Jill, & Courtney
🎙The Mo News Podcast: A new RSV vaccine for pregnant women to protect newborns; Trump will turn himself in on Thursday in Georgia— the day after skipping the GOP debate; and the return of factory jobs to the US.
🗞 WHY LANDING ON THE MOON SEEMS MORE DIFFICULT NOW THAN IT WAS 50 YEARS AGO
This is a picture of the far side of the moon taken by India’s space agency this weekend as one of its spacecraft makes the final approach to land on it. It’s also known as the “lunar” or “dark” side of the moon, because it faces away from Earth.
THE NEW SPACE RACE
The mission is underway that could make India the fourth country in history (after the US, Soviet Union and China) to land on the moon — and the first to ever land on the moon’s unexplored South Pole.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said the Chandrayaan-3 has been mapping the landing area and taking images with its camera, which they expect to use to locate a safe landing area.
They believe it is on track to make a successful landing on Wednesday.
It is India's second attempt to land on the south pole of the moon, after a crash landing in 2019.
A successful mission would show India is becoming a key player in space exploration— but it’s not so easy.
A Russian spacecraft attempting the same feat crashed on Sunday in another failed endeavor to the South Pole, leaving India poised to become first country to touch down there.
WHY THE LUNAR SOUTH POLE?
The moon’s South Pole has captivated scientists who believe the deep craters may contain frozen water. The ice in the rocks could be transformed by future explorers into air and rocket fuel. That could be a game changer for space exploration, which would allow for long-duration missions to Mars and allow spaceships to refuel directly on the moon, instead of lugging all the fuel and oxygen from Earth.
Ultimately, the hope is to build a permanent space station on the moon that can be sustained by that ice, allowing astronauts to live on the moon for extended periods of time to conduct research (the last of the Apollo crews, Apollo 17, spent the most time on the moon — and it was just over three days!).
THE MO NEWS COMMUNITY WANTS TO KNOW—-
Why is getting there so hard? In other words, how did we land on the moon successfully in 1969, and yet can’t do it now?
There’s a few reasons:
The part of the moon NASA wants to explore is not the same area that Neil Armstrong and the rest of the Apollo astronauts landed on more than half a century ago.
There have only been 3 lunar landing attempts in the past 4 years (India, Israel, and Japan) — all of which failed as they tried to land on the surface.
Check out this interactive map of the moon — it shows where the South Pole lies compared to where the Apollo 11 crew landed in 1969.
The lunar South Pole’s rugged and uneven terrain makes landing on it near impossible. Craters can be 1,600 miles wide and 8 miles deep, and the moon’s mountains, like the Epsilon Peak, reach as high as 5.6 miles — taller than any mountain on Earth.
Other reasons why the new moon missions are challenging are risk tolerance, cost and lack of experience:
We were willing to take more risks with human lives and rockets during the 1960s and 70s. It was considered vital to get the moon in the Cold War race against the Russians. They had beaten the US to every “first” in space prior to the landing humans on the moon. The American public also saw it was important, so was willing to stomach the failures, deaths, and cost.
As a result, NASA was a national security priority, and was receiving 4% of federal budget. The Apollo program alone cost the equivalent of $200 billion in today's dollars. It successfully got 12 people to land on the moon over a decade. Meanwhile, NASA’s current budget is just over $20 billion annually (0.4% of federal budget) for the entire agency and the moon mission is not the only priority. The US is actually using a rebuilt rocket to return there.
Institutional Knowledge: NASA effectively killed the moon program after 1972 and didn't return to it in earnest for 40 years. Most of the recent failed trips are being led by people and countries who never successfully conducted lunar missions before. Also, remember that only the U.S. was ever successful in landing man on the moon. Everyone else failed.
THE IMPORTANCE OF MOON EXPLORATION
While getting there is a challenge, the benefits would present tremendous opportunities. Some have gone so far to call the moon the “eighth continent” as NASA seeks to establish a permanent settlement there.
The moon’s surface is rich with history and minerals. To this day, the Apollo astronauts’ footsteps remain intact, undisturbed by weather or wind (you can see them in the photo below). So one can only imagine the vast amount of information researchers could learn from — like the markings of asteroids and comets that helped form the solar system and create planet Earth — that are etched into the moon forever.
❝
“It’s less about finding life itself, but it certainly is about the journey to life. The moon can tell us a lot about our own solar system, the violent processes that created our planets and scarred their surfaces… Part of our history is right there, hanging out over our heads.”
Thomas Zurbuchen, Former Head of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate
✔︎ Mo News Reality Check: We’ve also heard from several people who still doubt that the US really landed a man on the moon.
So, to the skeptics:
More than 400,000 people collectively worked on the Apollo program over more than a decade — scientists, engineers, researchers, support staff, and astronauts. Thousands of people would have had to keep a secret that all six crewed Apollo landings and dozens of un-crewed ones were faked for the better part of 60 years. (Also, the Soviets didn’t even accuse the US of faking the landings despite having major incentive to do so!)
That’s the underlying issue with most government conspiracy theories: overestimating the ability for mass, unparalleled coordination and secret-keeping that doesn’t align with realistic human tendencies and, let’s be honest, typical government leaks and incompetence.
⏳ SPEED READ
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🗓 ON THIS DAY: AUGUST 22
1865: American William Sheppard received first patent for liquid soap
1932: The BBC began its first TV broadcast in England
1950: Althea Gibson becomes first African American on U.S. tennis tour
1980: Queen released ‘Another One Bites the Dust,’ while Diana Ross released her song ‘I’m Coming Out’
1998: Jay-Z released his song ‘Can I Get A...,’ featuring Ja Rule and Amil